Upon reflection, united winning the league last year, painful though it was, was definitely to City's long term advantage.
There is the obvious reason behind that, of course, namely that Ferguson felt he could resign whilst on top. His intensely competitive nature would not have allowed him to leave a beaten man and his determination to stay on another season more than he planned and take the title back (if true) underline the incredible reserves of self-belief that he had, a belief that was entirely justified it has to be said.
It is this will to win and self-belief, however, that could very well prove to significantly damage united in the medium to long term. It was clear to anyone that united's squad had two glaring and systemic problems at its heart. A lack of power and purpose in midfield and a rapidly ageing defence. Rather than take steps to address these deficiencies and to build again for the long term, Ferguson elected to go for a quick fix to get the League back. He bought Van Persie, a man rapidly approaching his 30th birthday. This was at odds with his previous MO when attempting to recover from footballing adversity, where he took great risks when rebuilding: selling Ince, Hughes and Kanchelskis and going with the "kids" was one such example. On this occasion he went for the quick fix - because he was so consumed by reclaiming the title that no other considerations entered his thoughts in any meaningful sense.
It has to be said that the fact he achieved his objective is a testament to his powers as a football manager: especially with that squad. Some blues allow their personal dislike for him to infect their ability to objectively analyse his achievements: for me he was the greatest manager of all time, but because his energies were entirely focused on winning the league last year he gave little or no thought to the problems which now threaten to overwhelm united's squad. When squads age there comes a point when things can unravel very quickly - it may well be that we're now at that point. Certainly the fear factor has gone. In being such a driven, competitive and focused man, his parting gift to united could well be a legacy similar to Liverpool's after he'd "knocked them off their fucking perch'".
Everyone has an achilles heel and Ferguson's was that he loved winning so much, and hating losing to City so much, especially in that manner, that he went fighting his own selfish battle, rather than the one that was in the best interests of a club he spent 26 years building into such a force. Sergio's goal, it seems, becomes even more significant and beautiful with the passage of time.
As to Taggart's book, I would be lying if I said there wasn't a few bits I wasn't looking forward to digesting: September 1st 2008; April 16th 2011 and May 13th 2012 spring to mind.
